The Confederation of African Football (Caf) on Tuesday voted unanimously to remove age limit for candidates seeking elective positions.
This makes it possible for Issa Hayatou to seek for another four-year tenure as head of the continental football governing body.
All 54 affiliate associations present at a congress in Cairo agreed to change Article 18.10 of Caf Statutes, which states that “at the time of their election, all candidates nominated to the Caf Executive Committee must be “Bona Fide” member of their national associations and must be under seventy (70) years of age.”
Caf had in June 2014 proposed to synchronise its rules with those of world football’s governing body Fifa.
Hayatou has been at the helm of African football since 1988 and is in his seventh term of office. His current mandate ends in 2017 and will be eligible to seek for four more years until 2021- when he would have turned 75.
Cameroonian Hayatou, a former athletics administrator, is already the longest serving senior member in Fifa board of executives, acting as vice president.
Another statutory requirement for candidates seeking to unseat Hayatou implies that such person must come from the ranks of its own executive committee, which is in contrast with Fifa’s regulations.
